Corner base cabinet



Jan. 4, 1955 E. P. STOECKL CORNER BASE CABINET 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 18, 1950 QiIIIII IN V EN TOR.

1955 E. P. STOECKL CORNER BASE CABINET 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 18, 1950 IN VEN TOR.

United States Patent CORNER BASE CABINET Ernest P. Stoeckl, Geneva, Ill., assignor to Qeneva Modern Kitchens, Inc., Geneva, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application November 18, 1950, Serial No. 196,369

8 Claims. (Cl. 312-238) The corner areas of kitchen cabinets have long been a perplexing problem. No matter where the doors are located, the corner areas of the shelves are hard to reach. Probably the best solution of this problem is to use rotary shelves. Preferably, these are so positioned that their circles would extend beyond the corner where the face planes of the cabinets on two sides would meet, the portions of the shelves which would thus pro ect beyond the cabinets being notched out and fitted with doors. Th1s gives the appearance and the counter space WhlCh would ordinarily result from the meeting of two counters at right angles to one another. However, the rotary assembly of shelves and doors can be turned to give access to any part of the rotary shelves.

Heretofore the doors in this assembly have been provided with latches to hold the rotary assembly in the closed position, namely, the position in which both doors are closed, lying in alignment with the adjoining cabinet faces. The latches heretofore found best have been of a type which would move in one direction freely but needed to be released by thumb action to move in the other direction. With both doors equipped with such a latch, the handle on either door could be grasped, the associated latch actuated and the rotary assembly turned in the direction permitted by the latch on the other door.

According to the present invention, no latch need be operated, and the rotary assembly may be turned in either direction by pushing or pulling either door. The closing action is also improved because, although the rotary assembly will stay at rest in any position, a slight movement toward its nearest closed position will cause it to continue rotating until it reaches that position and stops. In its preferred form, this is accomplished without any interference in the unlimited rotation of the rotary assembly.

If, in the course of looking for a particular article on the shelf, it is turned all of the way around, it may still be turned in the same direction when next operated.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the drawings.

Designation of figures Figure l is a perspective view showing the form of cabinet chosen for illustration of the invention.

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken approximately on the line 2-2 of Figs. 1 and 3.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken approximately on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Figure 4 is a detail view taken approximately on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Although the law requires a full and exact description of at least one form of the invention, such as that which follows, it is, of course, the purpose of a patent to cover each new inventive concept therein no matter how it may later be disguised by variations in form or additions of further improvements; and the appended claims are intended to accomplish this purpose by particularly pointing out the parts, improvements, or combinations in which the inventive concepts are found.

General description The preferred form of the invention is illustrated in Fig. 1, the counter top being omitted in the drawings. Here it is seen that the cabinet 11 comprises a generally L-shaped housing member. The doors, or a double door 12 of generally L-shaped configuration, form a ma or portion of the exposed face of the cabinet. This double 'ice door is secured to rotary shelves 13, which are notched on one side to receive the doors. Carried by the bottom lower shelf on its underside is a closing lever 14, which bears on a closure cam 16. This cam is notched on one side to secure the rotary structure yieldably with the double door in the closed position. The remainder of the cam is preferably shaped with a gradual reduction in a radius toward the notch in both directions from a point opposite the notch. This slope is preferably such that it will keep the rotary structure moving toward the notch, once it has been started but will not start it once it has been brought to rest at any position.

Detailed construction Aside from the closure features, the rotary assembly may be constructed as in the past. Thus the shelves 13 may be carried by collars 18, to which they may be secured by screws 19. The collars 18 are secured to tubing 21 by set screws 22, three such screws to each collar being common. The shelves 13 may conveniently be spun pans, each having an upwardly-extending flange at its periphery and being notched to receive the double door 12. The lining of the double doors may be welded to the shelves after the shelves have been properly positioned on tube 21.

The tube 21 is guided at its upper end by a bearing member 24, which may comprise a tube flanged inwardly at its bottom and outwardly at its top. The top flange is secured to a Y-shaped support member 26, which also serves to position the upper edges of the cabinet sides. This support member 26 may be bolted to the cabinet sides as the last stage of assembly.

The tube 21 is supported by a roller bearing unit 28, the outer raceway of which is flanged to support the tube 21. The divided inner raceway is secured by bolt 29, pointed nut 31 and ordinary nut 32 to the bottom plate 33 of the cabinet.

The cam 16 is provided with a dished or depressed portion 36, which rests on the cabinet bottom 33 and may lie under the nut 31. This cam may be adjusted to a position accurately centering the double doors in their closed position by means of a screw 37 extending through a slot 38 in the cam 16.

The closure lever 14 is pivoted to the bottom shelf 13 by bolt 39, having a spacer bushing or shoulder 40 thereon. At its free end, it is provided with a cam follower roller 41 which may comprise a ball bearing unit. A spring 42 stretched between lever 14 and a stud 43 carried by bottom shelf 13 urge the roller 41 against cam 16.

Although the exact dimensions may vary with different constructions, it is believed that it will be helpful to indicate one set of dimensions which have been found satisfactory. With a cam roller 41 of diameter, a notch formed with its two sides lying at an angle of 70 to one another has been found satisfactory. These sides may extend until they merge with a curvature of slightly shorter radius than the radius of cam roller 41, so that the cam roller will seat at the sides and not at the base of the notch, thus centering itself in the notch. The slope or cam lead of the cam which has been found to be satisfactory is 1.500" per revolution. Thus the cam may have a radius of 2.187" adjacent the notch and 2.875" at its point.

The cabinet constructed in accordance with this invention has an extremely pleasing appearance in that it may be a continuation of the cabinets extending at right angles from one another along the adjacent walls. It is not essential that the present cabinet be the full horizontal depth of the adjacent cabinets and in fact it will probably more commonly be of somewhat less depth. In any event, the cabinet, in addition to its attractive appearance, is extremely convenient in use. Either door panel may be pushed or pulled without having to operate any latch by the hand. There is no limit to the amount of movement of the rotary assembly which is possible. It may be stopped in any position. When given a slight turn in the direction which will bring it to the closed position with the shortest turn, it will continue slowly moving in that direction until it reaches the closed position.

I claim:

1. A cabinet including an L-shaped housing, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour but recessed on one side and door means fitted to the shelf means in the recesses thereof to conform to the L-shaped configuration of the housing, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam being notched to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and the remainder of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said notch in both directions from a point opposite said notch and beyond the axis from the notch, the slope being insufficient to start the movement of the rotary assembly from rest but suflicient to keep the rotary assembly moving to the closed position once it is started toward said position in the direction aided by said cam.

2. A cabinet including an L-shaped housing, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a "vertical axis and including shelf means of circular cont-our but recessed on one side and door means fitted to the shelf means in the recesses thereof to conform to the L-shaped configuration of the housing, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam extending around the axis being notched at a single position to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and the remainder of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said notch in both directions from a point opposite said notch and beyond the axis from the notch.

3. A cabinet including an L-shaped housing, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour but recessed on one side and door means fitted to the shelf means in the recesses thereof to conform to the L-shaped configuration of the housing, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam extending around the axis being notched at a single position to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position, and sloping toward the seating position throughout substantially the entire remainder of its periphery.

4. A cabinet including a housing, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour interrupted on one side by recesses and door means fitted to the 4 shelf means in the recesses thereof to conform to the configuration of the housing, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam being notched to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and the remainder of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said notch in both directions from a point opposite said notch and beyond the axis from the notch, the slope being insulficient to start the movement of the rotary assembly from rest but sufficient to keep the rotary assembly moving to the closed position once it is started toward said position in the direction aided by said earn.

5. A cabinet including a housing, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour interrupted on one side by recesses and door means fitted to the shelf means in the recesses thereof to conform to the configuration of the housing, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing,

and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam extending around the axis being notched at a single position to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and the remainder of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said notch in both directions from a point opposite said notch and beyond the axis from the notch.

6. A cabinet including a housing having an opening, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour and door means fitted to the shelf means on one side thereof to close the opening when positioned by it, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis, and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam being notched to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and the remainder of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said notch in both directions from a point opposite said notch and beyond the axis from the notch, the slope being insufficient to start the movement of the rotary assembly from rest but sufficient to keep the rotary assembly moving to the closed position once it is started toward said position in the direction aided by said cam.

7. A cabinet including a housing having an opening, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour and door means fitted to the shelf means on one side thereof to close the opening when positioned by it, a notched closure earn surrounding the axis and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam extending around the axis being notched at a single position to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and the remainder of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said notch in both directions from a point opposite said notch and beyond the axis from the notch.

8. A cabinet including a housing having an opening, a rotary assembly rotatably mounted in the housing about a vertical axis and including shelf means of circular contour and door means fitted to the shelf means on one side thereof to close the opening when positioned by it, a notched closure cam surrounding the axis, and a cam follower bearing on said cam, one carried by the rotary assembly and one by the housing, and means resiliently urging the cam follower against the cam, said cam having converging slopes forming a seat to receive the cam follower with a seating and centering action with said door means at the closed position and a portion of said cam having a gradual slope with the radius reducing toward said seat and the surface of said slope being extended around said axis, the slope being insufficient to start the movement of the rotary assembly from rest but sufiicient to keep the rotary assembly moving to the closed position once it is started toward said position in the direction aided by said cam.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 993,333 Almon May 23, 1911 1,418,693 Bauer June 6, 1922 1,742,333 Walter Ian. 7, 1930 1,896,850 Perry Feb. 7, 1933 2,195,251 Kimball Mar. 26, 1940 2,239,734 Pratt Apr. 29, 1941 2,447,253 Jonas Aug. 17, 1948 OTHER REFERENCES Patten: Abstract, Ser. No. 9,835, published May 1, 1951, on an application filed February 20, 1948. 

